2024 Judges

GAIL PAK

Executive Creative Director / Art Director

Gail is an internationally awarded Executive Creative Director whose work has been celebrated at The One Show, Communication Arts, Cannes, ADCC, LIA, Applied Arts, and more. Gail started her career as an Art Director at Maclaren McCann, and has worked for some of the world’s most renowned creative agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Zulu Alpha Kilo, and more. As an expert on craft and creativity, Gail now teaches at Miami Ad School and OCAD University in Toronto, while also freelancing as an ECD.

STEVE MAPP

Director | Fancy Content

MAPP (Steve Mapp) began his career as an Art Director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and continued developing a nontraditional approach to advertising at agencies including Leagas Delaney, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and BSSP. As he moved up to creative director, he won numerous awards for his work with clients such as Adidas, eBay, Ace Hardware, IKEA (Lamp), Netflix, and Priceline.

MAPP began directing with a spot for MINI called Ahhhhhh! and never looked back. Since then, he’s honed his filmmaking craft by tackling a wide variety of projects, all with a cinematic approach. His greatest passions are for visual storytelling, comedy dialogue, and cars – and he cannot resist a good period piece. He lives his best life near multiple bodies of water in California with his wife and something like two or possibly five kids, it’s a blur sometimes.

JESSE NICELY

Senior VP of Cultural Strategy ⏐ Cashmere Agency

Jesse Nicely started his career as an editor, and then copywriter, before venturing into strategy. He is now SVP, Culture Strategy at the award-winning Cashmere Agency in Los Angeles and also freelances as a creative/strategist. Jesse has helped generate effective results for a range of brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, Kraft Singles, Metal Gear Solid, Union Bank, Happy Socks, Japan Airlines, and more.

In his spare time, Jesse volunteers for The 5 Gyres Institute, an organization focused on studying and educating the public on the impact of plastic pollution on oceans and waterways. During his time there, he coined the organization slogan: "More Ocean. Less Plastic."

RAUL GARCIA

Executive Creative Director | Courage Inc.

Raul is an internationally awarded Executive Creative Director / Art Director / Instructor (Miami Ad School) with over 24 years of experience working for agencies in Toronto, Vancouver, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. His work has been featured on the front page of the Toronto Star, landed on the front page of Reddit (twice), was spoofed by the Canadian television satire comedy show The Mercer Report, has been the subject of international news and talk radio, and has been blogged/tweeted by numerous celebrities including 50 cent, Pharrell Williams, Rosario Dawson and Zoe Kravitz. For one of his most recent projects, Raul and team created an experiential idea that inspired Lizzo to create artwork with her backside.

Raul has earned recognition in almost every national (Canadian) and international award show. Some of his highlights include a Grand Effie, a D&AD Black Pencil, a Titanium Cannes Lion, and Cassies Grand Prix.

Outside of advertising, Raul is a big video game junkie. In 2013, he was ranked 51st overall in Call of Duty Black ops 2 (for about 15 minutes).

CHRIS ZAWADA

Founding Partner, Chief Creative Officer⏐ Full Punch

Chris began his career in Toronto at FutureBrand, where he had the opportunity to work on national and international brands like Coca-Cola, Cadbury, RBC, Heinz and Empresas Polar. Before founding Full Punch, Chris was the Creative Director at several world-renowned agencies, including TAXI and Cossette, leading creative for UBC, TELUS, McDonald’s, WestJet and MINI, to name a few. Along the way, Chris also found the time to create one of the world’s most popular packaging design sites—lovelypackage.com. Chris champions beautiful design with purpose at Full Punch, leading the creative department and directing a wide range of projects encompassing digital, product development, advertising, content, and, of course, design.